HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hanwha Ocean, South Korea's "Big 2" warships, have agreed to stop fighting and join forces with each other to participate in bidding for the construction of overseas warships as a team.
The two companies, which have been fiercely competing for orders from home and abroad, have recently been embroiled in a court dispute over a bid for the next Korean destroyer (KDDX) worth 7.8 trillion won (approx. The KDDX is the first combat ship to be manufactured using only domestic technology.
However, Hanwha Group Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan and HD Hyundai Senior Vice Chairman Chung Ki-sun reportedly adjusted the issue.
Both companies have decided to reconcile since they failed to bid for an Australian $11 billion warship to build 11 high-tech frigates. The elimination of the companies has dealt a blow to the Korean shipbuilding industry, which is seeking new growth engines in the global warship market.
Korea's defense industry has become one of Korea's leading export industries by winning orders for large overseas weapons projects such as fighter jets, armored vehicles, and grain artillery. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hanwha Ocean, the world's No. 1 and No. 2 shipbuilders, have also actively entered the warship and submarine business as countries have increased their introduction of weapons to strengthen their defense capabilities since the wars between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Palestinian militant Hamas broke out.
However, as the competition between the two companies intensified, they were rather disadvantaged in the overseas order business. For example, both companies were eliminated from the Australian government's bid for a 10 trillion won warship, which HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hanwha Ocean tried to win with all their lives. It was a big shock to a domestic defense company that was confident of winning orders with competitive technology at a lower price than its competitors. Industry sources point out that legal battles over technology leakage in Korea were a decisive factor. In response, the two companies canceled related charges and decided to join forces in bidding for submarines in other countries such as Canada and Poland.
The word "bury the hatchet" is used at the top of the example sentence, meaning "to stop fighting and make peace." Bury means "to the ground," and hatchet means "hand axe." It means to give up your weapons and stop hostile acts. In the past, Native Americans said that representatives of opposing tribes met and buried an ax or other weapon deep under a large pine tree as a sign of stopping tribal fighting and reconciling. The weapon was swept away by underground water flowing under the ground. Today, it is used figuratively. It means the same as "to make peace" at the bottom of the example sentence.
